New Samsung Galaxy Alpha Details Confirm Metal Design

Over the past few weeks more and more leaks have emerged of a new device called the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. A device which is set to take on the rumored iPhone 6, and today Samsung have have just confirmed one of the key aspects of its upcoming smartphone.

With an iPhone 6 with a bigger 4.7-inch display coming soon to potentially steal some of the Android users who jumped ship to a device with a larger screen, like the Galaxy S4, Samsung is on full alert. In an attempt to rival Apple in that same category rumor has it the Samsung Galaxy Alpha will be an all aluminum 4.7-inch smartphone aimed directly at the iPhone 6.

This week Samsung posted some rather flat earnings reports for Q2 of 2014, and during an investor call they kept reassuring owners that things will improve in the second half of the year. We know the popular Galaxy Note 4 is coming this September, but it was other comments that has buyers interests piqued.

Samsung stated today that a smartphone with “brand new design materials” is coming to market in the next 6 months. And while that last bit conflicts with reports of the Galaxy Alpha’s rumored release date, the “new materials” is likely an all metal design, and possibly a sapphire crystal display.

During Samsung’s earnings call late last night the company announced (in a round-about way) that two new flagship smartphones are coming to market this year that will help turn around the slowly dipping revenue its mobile market has been generating.

We know the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is coming soon, most likely being announced at IFA in September like the past two, and eventually arriving throughout the globe and in the United States this October. However, it’s the second device we’re interested in. We know plenty about the Note 4, but whatever else Samsung has in store is somewhat of a mystery.

Last week we received some of the first images of the mystery handset Samsung could be eluding to above, followed by what’s possibly the announcement date. According to SamMobile, Samsung’s latest smartphone could be announced before the end of next week. This device is expected to be the metal-clad Samsung Galaxy Alpha pictured above, but it could be something else entirely.

Samsung’s Kim Hyun-Joon didn’t elaborate on what he meant by a smartphone with “new materials” but one can only guess this will be a new aluminum smartphone to take on the HTC M8 and iPhone 6, but it could be a unique ceramic material, or something else entirely. That being said, the Galaxy Alpha continues to appear in more and more leaks, and it’s likely what we can expect Samsung to debut later this year.

The leaks suggest it will be announced and launch in September, but Samsung’s broad “6 months” comment has the rumor mills churning. All said and done, before the year is done at least two new major smartphones will be available from Samsung Mobile running Android 4.4 KitKat, or Android L later this fall.

Galaxy S5 (left) vs Galaxy Alpha (right)

Rumor has it the Samsung Galaxy Alpha sports a 4.7-inch Quad-HD display (some suggest only 720p) and will be powered by a powerful 2.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor with 2-3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and have the same fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitors as the current Galaxy S5. The images we’ve seen thus far show it basically being a mini Galaxy S5 with some slight design improvements, and of course the new materials being metal around the entire device similar to what Apple’s released in the past few years.

As you can see from the image above this device won’t be entirely aluminum like the heavy and expensive HTC One M8, but instead have a new durable material on back, and be completely wrapped in what looks like a durable and lightweight aluminum shell. Rumors of a metal Galaxy device have been floating around for years, and 2014 it may finally come to fruition.

All said and done, these new materials could be Samsung’s long-awaited and delayed curved displays like we saw in the Samsung Galaxy Round, or something else entirely. Prospective buyers and enthusiasts will have to wait and see.